Sylvie Drapeau

Drapeau, Sylvie

Sylvie Drapeau, actor (b at Baie-Comeau 11 Jan 1962). She graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1986, and the next year received the prize for Discovery of the Year from the Association quebecoise des critiques de théâtre (AQCT) for three performances: Bonjour, là, bonjour, directed by René Richard Cyr (Théâtre du Nouveau Monde), The Tempest, directed by Alice Ronfard (Théâtre Expérimental des Femmes) and Le Cri, directed by Paula de Vasconcelos (Pigeons International), who had previously directed her in Du sang sur le cou du chat (1987). Presence, an energy marked with sensuality, and a strong sensitivity already foreshadowed the temperament of the great stage actor that she would become. In 1988, she was a hit in Elvire Jouvet 40, directed by Françoise Faucher (Théâtre de Quat'Sous), repeated in 1991 and 1996. Her talent would be crowned by the AQCT prize for best female performance for Beckett's Oh les beaux jours/Happy Days, directed by Brigitte Haentjens (Espace GO, 1990).

Modifying her acting on different styles of the eternal woman, she brought to her roles sometimes an animal sensitivity (L'Éveil du printemps, Quat'Sous, 1990), sometimes the impetuosity of a prima donna (La Répétition, Théâtre Il va sans dire, 1990), sometimes the fragility of a child-woman (Traces d'étoiles/Brilliant Traces Quat'Sous, 1992), at still others a feverish passion (Bérénice, Espace GO, 1992). She skilfully portrayed the seductive Mirandolina who used all her charms to reach her ends in La Locandiera, directed by Martine Beaulne (TNM, 1993). This superb role that suited her like a second skin, won a Masque for female lead, and emphasized her work in En pièces détachées, presented the same season at the TNM in a production by René Richard Cyr. Cyr, with whom she had made her initial stage debut (Donut, Théâtre Il va sans dire, 1986), directed her in about a dozen plays, among them two productions of Temps d'une vie by Roland Lepage. Indeed, she played some forty theatrical roles, and brought to the stage the melancholy destiny of Rosanna in Théâtre du Village d'Émilie (Grand-Mère 1993, then at the Rideau Vert 1997),a light and comic Marie Curie (Les Palmes by M. Shultz, Juste pour rire, 1991, repeated in 2005), and the intensity of Albertine (Albertine, en cinq temps, Espace GO, 1995) and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth, TNM 2001, prix Gascon-Roux). With Isabelle Vincent (who also co-starred with her in different productions) she co-authored the play Avaler la mer et les poissons, produced by the Théâtre de la Manufacture (2006-07), and published by Dramaturges Éditeurs.

While she clearly shone on stage, films offered several made-to-measure roles, notably Paule Baillargeon's Le Sexe des étoiles (1993), Micheline Lanctôt's Le Piège d'Issoudun (2003), and especially Pierre Falardeau's 15 février 1839 (2001), where her poignant Henriette De Lorimier won the prix Jutra for best female supporting actor.

On television, she played in several theatre adaptations: La Charge de l'orignal épormyable (1992), Le Temps d'une vie (1997) and Traces d'étoiles (1998), as well as in the series Bouscotte by Victor-Lévy Beaulieu (1996-2001) and Fortier (1999-2003, the Gémaux prize in 2001 for the best dramatic series). Further, she portrayed with exceptional skill the character of the very famous celebrity Denise Pelletier in the TV series Jean Duceppe.